Saturday, June 19, 2010

Yep, it's official. I've started a new project. Only I have help on this one! We're building an addition onto our house so we can move my Dad home! Two weeks ago, the man came and scraped all of our stairs right off the house! He scraped up all of our patio, our gas grill and, sadly, even our 30+-year-old blueberry bushes (which, I might add, were loaded with unripened berries. It looked to be a bumper crop this year *sniff)This is what the back of our house looked like two weeks ago.

And then it rained. This is how it looks after the rain. There are so many frogs, toads and croaking things in there that it's really hard to sleep at night with all the noise!

I'm hoping the proper permits will be procured soon and that the actual building will start. Every day that my dad stays at the assisted-living facility is another day gone by.

My mother's death is still so fresh for all of us and some days are just really, really hard. About a month ago, when my sister was visiting, we started talking about how lonely it is for my dad without my mom (they had been married for 62 years, you know) ... and we started talking about moving him to our house. Right now, our house is a typical, 1974-era, two-story traditional that is absolutely not handicapped accessible in any way! So, the only solution was to add a few rooms that would be ... and make sure the doorways to the rest of the rooms on the main floor were wide enough to accommodate the wheelchair.

We're adding an all-season porch that will have a wheelchair ramp outside the entrance from the yard. From this room, my dad will have a master bedroom with a large bathroom. The shower is going to be one of those great roll-in showers (no curb to get over!) with wonderful hand-held shower heads. It will be large enough to fit not only my dad and his shower chair, but another person, too, so we can help! We're going to make sure the sink can fit a wheelchair under and move the mirror down low enough so he doesn't have to crane his neck in order to see himself shaving.

A fabulous feature: A laundry chute from the bathroom directly into my little laundry area!!! No more hauling all his laundry down the halls at the assisted-living facility out to my car! Imagine that!

But the best part will be that my dad will be home. With us. We are going to keep some of his private-duty staff, but we won't need all the shifts, which will save an incredible amount of money.

And one other thing we're planning: A koi pond in the yard!!

In the midst of all this, though, I am, believe it or not, still working on knitting projects. I have two major ones in the works right now that are going to take a long time for all the pieces and parts, but I'm really excited about them and I hope you will be, too!

Please Don't Steal

I have shared photos and patterns of the projects I come up with for you to use, free of charge, but I ask that you do not post the photos or the patterns anywhere without my name and/or my permission. These projects are all intended for your own personal use only... not commercial or otherwise for sale!

Maggie Our Bearded Collie

About Me

I was a writer/columnist ... who became a stay-at-home mom ... who morphed into a homeschooling mom ... who took up knitting while waiting for my children at chess tournaments ... and caring for my elderly parents. I opened my online shop, http://www.thepatternbox.com in 2008. (Check it out for more of my designs!) Leisure Arts published "Storybook Dolls to Knit," my book of walkabout puppets, in 2011. My newest adventure: A grandson!